Yesterday the Skilter, 96 watt 50/50 bulb and sea grass came in one shot -- happy coocidence. A few other algaes showed up as boulliabase muck.

The skilter is running -- Tom I notice you took out the Skimmmer tower back in 2003 posts. Do you still do that. ? you haven't seemed to have mentioned it since.

the light is 50/50 to cut the effective 96 watts of cf light in half. Tom I have 1/2 the tank planted iwth manatee and shoal grass. Is there any reason I should go back to the all daylight bulb here, and blast this 8 gallon nano with all 96 watts?

I have dosed traces and nitrate.. have put boiled mud under the sand. had no access to fresh mulm but am considering some "garf grunge"

after that I"ll seed with tiggerpods and let the snails have free reign as the pods multiply .. hpefully I'll have a few Dwarf Seahorses by my birthday later this summer in a happilly planted marine tank. The dwarf seahorse board is playing with the idea of a low bioload in favor of horses that only need to eat bbs in a pinch and that can h unt copepods. I am hoping the skilter won't be too powerful for them.

It took me a year in FW to adopt EI, lower light and use co2 mist. this time I am trying to save myself some pain by taking advantage of Tom and Company's experience earlier in the game.

ADvice please?